It's been eight days now, but there are few clues and no answers. It's impossible to go anywhere near Susan McFarland's home without seeing her smiling face dominating the dozens of missing person posters in area stores and gathering places.

A poster about Susan McFarland of Terrell Hills is seen at the Quarry Market. McFarland last worked Nov. 25 at her job at SBC. She also went to the dentist that day and attended a function at her kids' school.William Luther/Express-News

Where is Susan McFarland?

That's the question friends, family and police alike are asking about the wife, mother of three loving children and SBC telecommunications executive who simply vanished one late November day while the rest of the city kicked back and prepared to celebrate brisk, sunny weather and Thanksgiving Day.

The questions don't mention the obvious: McFarland's neighbors in the leafy, upscale neighborhood of Terrell Hills fear the worst. It's common knowledge that the Texas Rangers have been called in to help the outgunned local police, who are more accustomed to handling routine disputes and property crimes.

Crimes here are few and far between, the nearby public schools are among the best in the state and neighbors still know one another by first name. It's not the part of city that trouble often visits. But none of that helps answer the question: Where is Susan McFarland?

McFarland's family and friends describe her as an energetic superwoman equally devoted to her children and her career. She wouldn't just take off, they say.

"This is the kind of stuff that you read about and only happens to other people. It's not real. But it is," McFarland's sister, Ann Smith Carr, said Tuesday. "We are still having this fantasy that she's going to come back tomorrow morning and say, 'You'll never believe what just happened to me.'"

Police have released no new details about the case.

Friends and family said McFarland, 43, last worked Nov. 25. She went to the dentist that day and later attended a function at her children's school, Woodridge Elementary.

Four days later, at 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, a Terrell Hills patrol officer found her 1997 Ford Explorer in an empty lot about 2 miles from her home.

Nearly 15 hours later, her husband, Richard McFarland, picked up the keys from police and reported his wife missing.

He told police he thought his wife was visiting friends in Amarillo. He hadn't heard from her in four days.

Perhaps the most puzzling piece of the case came the next day, when a stolen Suburban was found in Harriet Wells' garage across the street.

According to Wells, the truck had a smudge of blood on the bumper and there was a wallet inside with Richard McFarland's AAA card. She also found two bags of charcoal, an empty gas container and insecticide inside the garage.

Richard McFarland has declined to comment. Family members said the stay-at-home dad is trying to shield his children. Carr said her brother-in-law is "dreadfully upset" and told her he's not talking because, "I have enough going on."

Relatives from Susan McFarland's family who began arriving this week from her hometown of St. Louis broke their silence Tuesday, hoping someone will step forward with information that can help police.

"There's just so much that no one knows," Carr said. "We just want people to take the facts to police, not rumors. This is a very important person to a lot of people."

Family members said Susan was raised in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. She met her husband at a party in St. Louis, realizing later they had attended the same high school.

Susan McFarland, already working for SBC, requested a transfer to San Antonio after falling in love with the city while visiting a former St. Louis neighbor, Margot Cromack. The McFarlands moved here four years ago.

Richard McFarland and the children have been staying with Cromack since Susan McFarland disappeared.

"No one is perfect, but I don't think anyone can be around her without being impacted," said Cromack, 50. "There was no down time with Susan."

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Cromack said, Richard McFarland called her asking about Susan's whereabouts. She told him Susan probably left early to go to Amarillo.

Carr called her sister at work that same day. She said she became concerned after Susan failed to return her call.

"She's usually back to you in two hours," Carr said. "She sees a project. She does it, gets it done. She's not the one to say, 'I wish I was in Tahiti.' There is no way that she would voluntarily take off. No way."

According to the family, Susan McFarland is the youngest of four siblings. Her parents are deceased.

McFarland's brother, a retired Kansas City police officer, is on his way here, Carr said.

Karen Hardeman, a neighbor whose children are play pals with the McFarland kids, noted that Susan's failure to call to check on her children "is ridiculous" but she nevertheless held out hope.

"I think we are all hoping that she ran to Mexico," Hardeman said.

Her family continues to pray for her return.

"We are going to find her," Carr said. "Something is very, very wrong. We know that. But if we focus on that, we won't find her. She is a real person, a real mom, a real sister."

The investigation into the baffling case of a missing Terrell Hills mother spread into muddy creeks and rain-slicked drainage ditches Wednesday as volunteers combed the area with search dogs.

Andrew Joplin (from left), James Joplin, and Chris Cashman of the San Antonio Blacksun Search and Rescue Canine Team work a drainage ditch near the 600 block of Morningside. The team was searching Wednesday for Susan McFarland, a Terrell Hills woman missing since Nov. 25.J. Michael Short/Special to the Express-News

Officials with the Heidi Search Center commissioned the team of dogs, hoping to pick up the scent of a trail that would lead them to Susan McFarland, who has been missing for more than a week.

Late Wednesday, there still was no sign of the 43-year-old mother of three, who is also an SBC telecommunications executive.

Members of the San Antonio Blacksun Search and Rescue Canine Team were first dispatched to a drainage ditch north of the McFarland residence.

Earlier in the day, a police officer discovered a broken bouquet of plastic flowers near the ditch, resembling a makeshift roadside memorial, witnesses said.

To help the dogs pick up McFarland's scent, their handlers had them sniff a bag filled with some of the missing woman's clothing. After about two hours of searching through dark tunnels and puddles of cold water, the hunt near the drainage ditch was called off.

The team also covered a stretch of Salado Creek north of Terrell Hills and a heavily wooded area where one of McFarland's children regularly went for horse rides.

The only place where a dog had a positive reaction was at the empty lot where police found McFarland's 1997 Ford Explorer about 3 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. The team's bloodhound, Boomer, zeroed in on the exact spot where the Explorer was found.

"All we could tell by this is that she got out of the vehicle somehow and that she didn't wander far from the scene," said Karen Dye, a director with the dog-search team.

Throughout each of the searches, several of McFarland's family members who came from Missouri stayed huddled inside a rental car to keep warm. McFarland's husband, Richard McFarland, was not at the search sites.

Pete Smith, McFarland's brother and a retired homicide detective from Kansas City, braved most of the chilly day outside and watched patiently as the dogs sniffed around.

"Throughout my career, I've been on the other side of many investigations," Smith said, his eyes welling up occasionally from the cold wind and the situation. "After all those years, this one hit home."

McFarland was last seen Nov. 25. Four days later, police found her Explorer in an empty lot about two miles from her home.

Later that afternoon, her husband, Richard McFarland, went to pick up the keys from police and reported his wife missing. Explaining the time lag between her disappearance and when he filed the missing person's report, Richard McFarland told police he believed his wife had gone to visit friends in Amarillo.

The next morning, the case took an unusual turn after a stolen Chevrolet Suburban was found inside the garage of one of McFarland's neighbors. The neighbor said there was a smudge of blood on the Suburban's bumper and a wallet containing a AAA card bearing Richard McFarland's name.

Investigators since have searched the McFarlands' home and vehicles. Police collected a number of items at the house but would not discuss what they took. All the evidence collected so far is being examined at an Austin crime lab.

Terrell Hills Police Chief Lawrence Semander said his officers are continuing to take statements from possible witnesses.

"We know that this investigation has been creeping methodically slow," Semander said. "There are a lot of things we need to look at to determine what is criminal and what is not. I think those results will definitely be a big deal."

He commended McFarland's family for their patience.

"I know this is very frustrating for the family, and they've been holding up well so far better than I would."

As the baffling disappearance of Terrell Hills working mom Susan McFarland neared the end of its second week Friday, her husband, Richard, began the day like most parents dropping off the kids at school.But the normalcy the family has so desperately tried to maintain for the three McFarland boys abruptly ended when Texas Rangers picked up Richard McFarland near the youngest child's school.

After stopping McFarland as he left the Howard Early Childhood Center, the Rangers escorted him to a police station for questioning and obtained a saliva specimen from the 45-year-old, according to family.

The stay-at-home dad, who has declined to be interviewed and who authorities say is cooperating with the investigation, was home by noon.

Though brief, the encounter further fueled speculation about the missing-person case that has united dozens of supporters in a search for the missing SBC telecommunications executive in Northeast Side parks and creeks.

"You get the feeling that something is bound to break," said Susan McFarland's brother, Pete Smith. "But in the meantime, all we can do is continue to try to find her and hope this ends happily for everyone soon."

Though foul play is suspected, Shawn Palmer, the lead Texas Rangers investigator, declined to comment about the latest developments.

Richard McFarland told police he last saw his wife Nov. 25, but he reported the 43-year-old missing three days later on Thanksgiving, hours after police found her 1997 Ford Explorer in an abandoned lot.

The next day, a stolen Suburban was found inside neighbor Harriet Wells' garage, across the street from the McFarlands' home on Arcadia Place.

Wells said the vehicle, which turned out to have been swiped from a nearby Texaco, contained a wallet carrying McFarland's AAA card and had a smudge of blood on its bumper.

In the absence of detailed official updates, rumors and questions have rushed in. The family's otherwise-tranquil street has become a media circus with helicopters thumping overhead and residents watching closely.

Throughout the day Friday, as in days past, neighbors kept vigil on their missing neighbor's home and speed-dialed each other with updates.

The table saw? They watched the television report.

The drugstore bandages? They heard about it.

The search parties? They read about it.

They know all of it and hinted they knew still more, which they would only share with select few.

Though authorities declined to comment on the various reports, friends and neighbors searched their memories for small details, clues that might solve the mystery.

One neighbor remembered Richard McFarland had a bandage on his pinky. When the neighbor asked, the dad said he cut himself with a hand saw while installing a fence.

A parent whose children also attend Howard said she saw McFarland drop off his youngest child Friday morning. As she drove away from the campus, she saw McFarland standing next to a dark Chevrolet Suburban used by investigators.

"It looked just like anytime someone has been pulled over for something routine," said the parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But given what everybody has been saying, I could only suspect it wasn't about anything routine."

Susan's brother, Smith, said investigators asked his brother-in-law to provide a DNA sample.

Smith, a retired homicide detective from Kansas City, said he didn't want to speculate about the request.

As the husband was being questioned, about 50 friends, volunteers and SBC co-workers of Susan McFarland used walking sticks, dogs and even a mule to methodically rummage through nearby parks and creek areas.

Miles away in eastern Bexar County, a man driving on Foster Road spotted a bundle of fabric in a ditch. After stopping, he found a bed sheet wrapped around a bloody comforter and two bloody pillows.

The motorist called the Bexar County sheriff's office, which put the find in an evidence room and contacted the Texas Rangers.

"Whether there's any connection to this or not, we don't know," sheriff's Capt. Kenneth Bilhartz said.

irodrig@express-news.net

Staff writers Jesse Bogan, Elaine Aradillas and Karisa King contributed to this report.

n., December 09, 2002 11:12AMSources: McFarland Feared DeadBlood Stain Matched To Missing Terrell Hills WomanRangers Stay MumRG Griffing, SAL StaffBlood found on a stolen Suburban has been matched to the blood-type of missing Terrell Hills woman Susan McFarland, and authorities have unofficially concluded the mother of three was murdered, sources tell the Lightning.

Though law officials refuse comment on the report, the Lightning has learned that the missing persons case is now considered a likely homicide, and that the prime suspect is the woman's husband Richard McFarland. (See stories below)

As neighbors and authorities used search dogs to hunt for signs of the woman, Texas Rangers briefly took McFarland into custody Friday, questioned him, took DNA saliva samples, and released him.

Sources say that detectives are trying to physically tie McFarland to the stolen Suburban which was found across the street from the family residence. (See stories below)

If that match happens, sources say, an arrest of Richard McFarland would be likely on auto theft charges.

The strange case of a Terrell Hills woman who vanished from here home Thanksgiving week, may be nearing a break, as the Texas Rangers center on the woman's husband as the key to the mystery. (See stories below)

Rangers Friday morning confronted Richard McFarland as he dropped his children off at school, and took him into custody, in hand cuffs, for questioning. Sources say DNA samples were taken, and the man was released before noon.

While investigators are saying little about the suspicious disappearance of Susan McFarland, her family is trying to cope with her absence.

But the Christmas lights in downtown San Antonio aren't helping.

"It's awful. It's awful," Ann Smith Carr, a sister from St. Louis, said after spending part of Saturday downtown with family. "Thinking about a holiday with something like this is very, very depressing. This is just unbelievable."

The past week, Carr strolled through open fields and wooded areas in hopes of finding something anything that might lead to the whereabouts of her sister, Susan, 43, a mother of three boys in Terrell Hills, who has been missing since Nov. 25.

Shawn Palmer, the lead Texas Rangers investigator in the case, offered little in the way of developments in the case, other than to say the missing person with suspicious circumstances investigation continues.

On Friday, scores of people helped Carr and other family rummage through John James Park. And while she visited with her three nephews, a search party combed over Olmos Park.

But, apart from trash, nothing of substance was found.

"Susan's family is extremely grateful for their efforts, good wishes and their prayers," Carr said of those who have extended hands and prayers since the search began.

Margot Cromack, a close friend, said she has been trying to comfort the children.

"There's a lot of difference between your head, your heart and your gut," she said. "My heart doesn't want her to be dead. It won't even go there. Some people call it denial. I welcome it. That's fine. I'll deal with it when I know what I'm dealing with."

The Texas Rangers are investigating the disappearance of a former Amarillo woman. She is from San Antonio, but she was supposed to visit friends in Amarillo. She called to cancel the trip -- and that's the last anyone ever heard from her.

It's been almost two weeks since anyone has heard from Susan McFarland. Investigators found her car a few miles from her home, with the key still in the ignition. She was supposed to spend Thanksgiving in Amarillo with her friends, the Dowlens. She called the day she was about to arrive to cancel the trip. Family friend George Dowlen says, "She was not coming up because she did not know how her husband would react if she were to come to Amarillo and bring the boys. That's the last time we had any contact with her."

Despite her marriage, her friends say she was happy. She loved her children and had a good job as an executive with SBC Communications. They say she isn't the type to leave without notice. Dowlen says, "We do hope and pray that that is what happened, but no one who knows her thinks there's any chance she would leave without her three sons."

The Dowlens say the evidence points to Susan's husband as the answer to many of their questions. Dowlen says, "She was going to file for divorce. In fact, she already had the papers prepared and she was going in the next Monday after Thanksgiving to file for divorce and a restraining order."

The Dowlens say Susan told them her husband had been acting irrationally lately. He had even been kicked out of a pharmacy for causing a scene. Even with the strange behavior, Dowlen says, she never told her friends she was scared of her husband or that her life was in danger. "We're as mystified as everyone else. We do not believe at all that Susan voluntarly walked off."

There are more questions in this case. In addition to Susan's car, San Antonio police also found a stolen vehicle across the street from where the McFarlands live. The vehicle had a smudge of blood on the bumper and her husband's insurance card was in the cab. Investigators have already ordered Mr. Mcfarland to give a DNA sample. Police don't know if the stolen vehicle or blood smear are related to the disappearance, but they want to find out.

Right now, there is no crime -- it's only a missing person case -- but there are a lot of questions. Like why did the stolen car have Mr. Mcfarland's insurance card in it and why would Susan leave her car with the keys in the ignition. Police need answers, and everyone hopes to find the answer if and when Susan McFarland turns up safe.

When Susan McFarland vanished two weeks ago, she was making plans to divorce her husband and bracing for a possible custody battle over their three young sons, family friends said Monday.On the last day she was seen, McFarland also told friends in Amarillo she planned to stay home for Thanksgiving though her husband, Richard McFarland, later told investigators he believed his wife had gone to visit friends there for the holiday.

"She had the papers prepared and was going to file them on the Monday after Thanksgiving," said George Dowlen, a longtime friend of McFarland and an attorney in Amarillo who recommended several lawyers to handle her divorce case.

Dowlen and his wife invited McFarland and her sons, ages 5, 9 and 11, to spend the holiday with them. But McFarland turned down the offer, fearing it would upset her husband, Dowlen said.

"She said she didn't want to make a scene," said Dee Ann Dowlen, who had been close to McFarland since 1980 when they worked together at an Amarillo company.

What happened to the 43-year-old working mom has thus far stymied investigators and roused speculation in the bedroom community of Terrell Hills.

Richard McFarland, who gave investigators a swab of his saliva and was briefly questioned by Texas Rangers last week, did not return calls Monday. Over the past two weeks, he has declined to comment.

His wife's abrupt disappearance Nov. 25 had yet to be reported when police found her Ford Explorer abandoned in an empty lot about two miles from the family's home on Thanksgiving Day. About 15 hours after police reported the discovery to Richard McFarland, he filed a missing person report.

The next day, a neighbor reported to police that she found a Suburban in her garage, across the street from the McFarlands. Inside the vehicle, which had been reported stolen the previous day, the neighbor found a wallet with a AAA card bearing Richard McFarland's name. She also said she saw a smudge of blood on the vehicle's bumper.

Though McFarland never filed divorce papers and family members have not mentioned any cracks in the marriage, she told the Dowlens she had seriously considered divorce as far back as a year ago. Dee Ann Dowlen said McFarland dropped the idea because she wanted to preserve her family. But six weeks ago, McFarland called George Dowlen and asked him to recommend an attorney to handle her divorce.

Though McFarland did not choose any of the lawyers Dowlen recommended, she faxed him a copy of the contract with the attorney she eventually hired and asked him to review it.

"She said she just couldn't take it anymore," Dee Ann Dowlen said. "She just couldn't handle how he was treating her."

McFarland told her friends that her husband had grown increasingly irritable, often scolding her harshly over trivial matters. He yelled at her for strapping their sons into her sport utility vehicle with seat belts, instead of car seats, even though the boys were too big for the seats. And Richard McFarland's failure to keep a steady job also wore on her, Dee Ann Dowlen said.

McFarland never mentioned any physical abuse to her friends. Nor did the couple fight in front of them, the Dowlens said.

"I have never seen Rick do anything that I can recall that would be adverse to Susan. In fact, he'd pretty well do whatever she asked him to," George Dowlen said.

Susan McFarland's greatest fear was that her husband, who ran an Internet sales business at home, might appear to be the primary caregiver for their children, they said. Susan's job as an accountant at SBC meant she supported the family's affluent lifestyle, though it kept her out of the home.

Meanwhile, with no new breaks in the case, the last of Susan McFarland's three older siblings planned to return home to their native Missouri.

"The police have told me that there is nothing that they need me for," Ann Smith Carr said at an afternoon news conference Monday at the front entrance of the Terrell Hills police station. "We'll keep waiting."

Carr declined to speculate about the circumstances of her sister's disappearance.

"I can't go there," Carr said. "My father was an FBI agent for 35 years. I have seen things that look one way that end up being something else. Like everyone else, I have lots of questions but no conclusions."

In the nearly three weeks since the disappearance of Terrell Hills mother and SBC executive Susan McFarland, authorities have compiled an impressive stack of evidence, from the minor to the crucial. Among what police know:

Susan McFarland planned to divorce her husband, Richard McFarland, and was prepared to wage a custody battle for their three boys.

Susan canceled plans to visit friends in Amarillo over Thanksgiving despite her husband's earlier statements to police that he believed she had planned to go there.

Her Ford Explorer was found by Terrell Hills police Thanksgiving Day in an empty lot less than a mile from her home, the keys in the ignition.

Her husband reported her disappearance 15 hours later, after dropping by police headquarters to pick up the keys.

A neighbor found a stolen Chevrolet Suburban in her garage across the street from the McFarland home in the 300 block of Arcadia Place. An auto card from AAA with Richard's name was found in a wallet in the stolen vehicle. A smudge of blood reportedly was found on the vehicle's bumper.

The Suburban had been parked at an Alamo Heights Texaco for about a week with a for sale sign. The gas station manager has told police Richard McFarland was the only person to test drive it.

The Suburban had stolen license plates that belonged to a similar vehicle owned by Rob Zimmerman, a producer with "America's Most Wanted," who lives three blocks from the Texaco.

Richard voluntarily gave police a DNA sample, and was questioned briefly by police. Authorities say he hasn't provided further help. "I am disappointed with the level of cooperation that I've gotten with Mr. McFarland," Shawn Palmer, the lead Texas Rangers investigator for the case, said Wednesday night.

Richard steadfastly has refused to talk to the media. On Wednesday, attorney Mark Stevens acknowledged he was representing Richard, but declined further comment.

Despite the stack of evidence suggesting foul play, police still are unable to say if a crime has been committed. Without a body, it's simply a missing person case, they said.

"You have to have a victim in any crime," Terrell Hills Police Chief Lawrence Semander said Wednesday. "In a homicide, you have to be able to demonstrate that they met their death at the hands of another person. So first you have to have the deceased. Until you have that, you have a missing person."

Forensic evidence technicians have reviewed "everything" involving the case, he said, but results are pending.

"We have no forensic information back. Zip," he said. "It's not like 'CSI (Crime Scene Investigation)' on TV. It doesn't work like that. It takes weeks."

That Susan McFarland has not called to touch base with her children is part of the "suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance," said Palmer, the Texas Ranger. DPS crime lab personnel "are doing all they can, and they are aware of the importance of this case. I don't have a timetable to give you. We are still conducting searches and we are still visiting witnesses."

According to George Dowlen, a longtime friend of Susan and an attorney in Amarillo, the SBC exec was going to file for a divorce the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Dowlen and his wife, Dee Ann Dowlen, had invited Susan and her children to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with them in Amarillo. But the Terrell Hills woman canceled, saying she was worried the trip would upset her husband.

Meanwhile, Richard Clemmer and Carol Watson, who manage the Texaco on Austin Highway, said Wednesday that Richard McFarland was the only person to test drive the Suburban before it was stolen.

Clemmer and Watson said they told Texas Rangers the vehicle had been test driven Nov. 20 for two hours by a man who left a white van behind and was accompanied by a young boy. They later identified the driver as Richard.

"He said he was taking it to show it to his wife," Watson recalled of the first test drive.

Richard returned Nov. 22 to drive it again, the two Texaco managers said. And one day later, he took a quick peek under the hood and inside the cab, they said.

Two days later, the Monday before Thanksgiving, they said the vehicle was missing.

DNA samples, such as the one Richard has given Texas Rangers and is being processed by the DPS crime lab in Austin, are taken to either include or exclude people in cases, said Lonnie Ginsberg, who heads the serology section of the Bexar County crime lab.

"Just because a sample is taken doesn't mean that a person is a suspect in a case," he said. "A lot of people assume that, but that's not necessarily true. It's a routine request now for us."

How long it takes to process a sample, he said, depends on the number of samples a laboratory is handling.

In rushed cases, a complete turnaround in Bexar County can take one to three weeks; other times, as much as six weeks, Ginsberg said.

The Austin lab handling Richard's sample declined to comment.

"When you watch TV shows, it seems that it can be done at the blink of an eye, but that's just not the case," Ginsberg said. "You are dealing with genetic materials. We've got to be 100 percent sure."

Though he is unfamiliar with the Terrell Hills case, Lt. Richard Martinez with the San Antonio Police Department's Youth Crime Services/Missing Persons Unit said any time a middle-aged person with a stable job and family just disappears, his suspicion is aroused.

"If that person becomes missing, then I would definitely be suspicious that foul play may be involved," he said. "In terms of suspects, most of the time when a female adult is a victim of violence, 60 (percent) to 70 percent of the time, the female is acquainted with, knows or is related to the suspect. That is if she is a victim of violence."

There have been cases, he said, where middle-aged adult females disappeared because they wanted to.

"We can't always assume that every missing adult is a foul play case," he said. "Because of that, when you have a victim, or an alleged victim who is female, you want to have some sort of focus but you don't want to focus in narrowly or on one set of circumstances."

Chief Semander said investigations take time.

"At this point, things are always slow," he said. "Investigations are slow compared to the various cop shows that people are conditioned to. I hope one of these days soon we can pick up the phone and say, 'Hey we have something concrete.'"

jbogan@express-news.net

Staff Writers Maro Robbins and Karisa King contributed to this report.